Strasbourg, 10/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption of the report by Belgian Green member Paul Lannoye, the EP approved with amendments the proposals of directive concerning sugar, honey, fruit juices, tinned and long-life milk and jams. Approving its rapporteur, it strengthened several points of the texts subject to it for second consultation following major changes made by the Council to the initial Commission proposals. The plenary, however, did not follow its environment committee that recommended more rigorous labelling for fruit juices. EUROPE recalls that the five products had been grouped, under the previous legislature, with cacao and chocolate products as well as coffee and chicory extracts, in a directive for simplification , called the "breakfast" directive. These five products are classified as being relevant to Common Agriculture Policy, and they therefore escape codecision and the Parliament is only consulted on them.
The main changes concern: - sugars: The EP calls for a definition of brown sugar, within six months after adoption of the directive; - honey: The EP is opposed to any form of denaturation of honey through significant elimination of pollen, and therefore refuses to introduce the concept of "filtered honey"; - fruit juices: The EP did not adopt any amendments from its environment committee to guarantee better consumer information through labelling, allowing a clear distinction to be made between fresh fruit juices and products on the basis of concentrated fruit juice. With the adoption of an amendment by the German Social Democrat, Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, it even called for suppression of the provision that, in the Council project, made it compulsory to mention "made from concentrated fruit juice" or "partially juice concentrate" on the labelling.